Sponsored Stories Unit Creation from Organic Activity Stream

ABSTRACT

Methods, apparatuses and systems directed to sponsored story generation from an organic activity stream in a social networking site. A user wishing to promote an entry from an organic activity stream may, using a sponsor user interface, specify the types of stories to promote to a portion of the home page displayed to a member of a social network.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to social networking websitesand other systems in which users can form connections with other users,and in particular, promoting a specific organic stream story from ausers' news feed to an sponsored stories area.

This disclosure hereby incorporates by reference commonly-owned U.S.utility patent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/968,786,entitled, “Targeting Social Advertising to Friends of Users Who HaveInteracted with an Object Associated with the Advertising,” previouslyfiled on Dec. 15, 2010.

This disclosure hereby incorporates by reference commonly-owned U.S.utility patent application Ser. No. 12/884,010, entitled, “ActionClustering for News Feeds,” previously filed on Sep. 16, 2010.

BACKGROUND

Social networks, or social utilities that track and enable connectionsbetween users (including people, businesses, and other entities), havebecome prevalent in recent years. In particular, social networkingwebsites allow users to communicate information more efficiently. Forexample, a user may post contact information, background information,job information, hobbies, and/or other user-specific data to a locationassociated with the user on a social networking website. Other users canthen review the posted data by browsing user profiles or searching forprofiles including specific data. Social networking websites also allowusers to associate themselves with other users, thus creating a web ofconnections among the users of social networking website. Theseconnections among the users can be leveraged by the website to offermore relevant information to each user in view of the users' own statedinterests in their connections.

A system, such as a website, that allows users to interact with thesystem typically stores a record for each users of the system. Theserecords may comprise information provided by the user as well asinformation gathered by the system related to activities or actions ofthe user on the system. For example, a system may require a user toenter information such as contact information, gender, preferences,interests, and the like in an initial interaction with the system, whichis stored in the user's record. A user's activities on the system, suchas frequency of access of particular information on the system, alsoprovide information that can be stored in the user's record. The systemmay then use information provided by the user and information gatheredabout the user, to customize interactions of the system with the user.For example, a website selling books may keep track of a users previouspurchases and provide the user with information on related books duringsubsequent interactions with the system. Information in a user's profilemay also be used by the system to target sponsored stories that are ofinterest to the user. Using information collected from and about usersresults in a system that is more efficient and beneficial for both theuser and the system.

Users interacting with the social network may post stories or statusupdates to a live activity stream, such as a “news feed.” A news feed isa data format typically used for providing users with frequently updatedcontent. A social networking system may provide various news feeds toits users, where each news feed includes content relating to a specificsubject matter or topic, and/or other users. Various pieces of contentmay be aggregated into a single news feed. In some implementations, asocial networking system may provide a news feed that includes selectedentries corresponding to activities of a user's first-degree contactsand/or pages or topics that a user has indicated an interest. Individualusers of the social networking system may subscribe to specific newsfees of their interest. A group of related actions may be presentedtogether to a user of the social networking system in the same newsfeed. For example, a news feed concerning the event organized throughthe social networking system may include information about the event,such as its time, location, and attendees, and photos taken at theevent, which have been uploaded to the social networking system.

Generally, news feeds are customized for each member; only the statusupdates and stories posted by their connections are displayed. In thismanner, members of the social network may quickly access their directconnections' status updates, story postings, and other interactions withthe social network in a single stream, obviating the need toindividually check their connections' profile pages.

However, given the vast number of contacts the average member of asocial network has, and the prodigious amounts of status updates postedby users, it is possible that stories of interest to the user are lostin the unending stream of their newsfeed. Furthermore, sponsors may wishto pay for permanence of a particular story in members' newsfeeds; thisfunctionality unavailable in typical social networking systems.

Typically sponsors pay for a static advertisement to be displayed to amember of the social network. In particular embodiments, advertisementsmay be displayed to a member's home page on the social network, mobiledevices, third-party webpages and applications, television and othervideo streams, or any other particular display accessed by a member ofthe social network. Despite data mining techniques that match usersbased on their preferences, activities, and other data stored in theirsocial networking profile to the most relevant sponsored or promotedstories, no system currently exists for promoting a story from a user'snews feed to the sponsored stories space of a social network home page.Sponsored or promoted stories generated from actual stories in users'newsfeeds are more likely to be viewed by users, because they generallyinvolve interactions or suggestions by their connected friends, or fanpages that they are connected or subscribed to.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the architecture of an example social network.

FIG. 2 illustrates the hardware components of an example social network.

FIG. 3 is depicts the interaction between the organic activity streamand the sponsored story specification database to create sponsoredstories from newsfeed stories in accordance with one embodiment of thedisclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method for promoting stream sponsored story to ansponsored story space.

FIG. 5 depicts example components in an sponsored story system in asocial network.

FIG. 6A is an example of the sponsor GUI used by sponsors to specify thetype of stories they wish to sponsor or promote to the sponsored storysystem, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6B is an example of a simplified sponsor GUI.

FIG. 7 is an example of a news feed story promoted to the sponsoredstory space of a user's social networking homepage in accordance withone embodiment of the disclosure.

FIGS. 7A-E illustrate examples of various types of sponsored stories.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example computer system.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example network environment.

The figures depict various embodiments of the present disclosure forpurposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readilyrecognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments ofthe structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed withoutdeparting from the principles of the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENT(S) Overview

Particular embodiments relate to a social networking environmentincluding a social networking system and related systems that integrateindividual stories, status updates, and user interactions with anadvertising system. A social networking system offers its users theability to communicate and interact with other users of the socialnetworking system. Users join the social networking system and then addconnections to a number of other users to whom they desire to beconnected. Once they are members of the social network, the users mayinteract with the social network itself, by posting stories and statusmessages on their own page, other users, by commenting, posting stories,etc. on other users' pages, or with non-user entities, such as fan pagesthat they subscribe to, online deals they redeem or subscribe to, orlocations that they check in to.

Implementations of the present disclosure extend these concepts byallowing sponsors or specific users to export by promoting specificnewsfeed stories to sponsored story space on users' social networkingpages, thereby increasing the permanence and viewing frequency of thesestories. In one example, a user may want to promote one of his newsstories so that more of his connected friends can see the story in amore frequent and permanent view. For example, a sponsor who publishesan application, such as a social networking game, may wish for statusupdates generated with its application to have permanence on theapplication user's friends' homepages. In another example, a sponsorassociated with a page on the social network, may want to promote newsstories when a user connects to the page on the social network or to anobject associated with the sponsor off network. In another example, theproprietor of a store may wish to promote news stories to a user'sfriends when that user “checks-in”, or indicates that he physicallyvisited, the store. In another example, the proprietor of a store maywish to promote news stories to a user's friends when that usersubscribes, purchase, or redeems a deal or coupon associated with thesponsor. Other embodiments are readily envisioned by the disclosure andare described in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a system environmentsuitable for operation of a social networking website 100. The systemenvironment comprises one or more client devices 110, one or morethird-party websites 140, a social networking website 100, and a network120. In alternative configurations, different and/or additional modulescan be included in the system.

Client devices 110 comprise one or more computing devices that canreceive member input and can transmit and receive data via network 120.For example, client devices 110 may be desktop computers, laptopcomputers, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or anyother device including computing functionality and data communicationcapabilities. Client devices 120 are configured to communicate vianetwork 120, which may comprise any combination of local area and/orwide area networks, using both wired and wireless communication systems.Third party website 140 and action terminal 150 are coupled to network120 for communicating messages to social networking website 100 aboutthe members' actions off website 100.

Social networking website 100 comprises a computing system that allowsmembers to communicate or otherwise interact with each other and accesscontent as described herein. Social networking website 100 stores memberprofiles that describe the members of a social network, includingbiographic, demographic, and other types of descriptive information,such as work experience, educational history, hobbies or preferences,location, and the like. Website 100 further stores data describing oneor more relationships between different members. The relationshipinformation may indicate members who have similar or common workexperience, group memberships, hobbies, or educational history.Additionally, the social network host site 120 includes member-definedrelationships between different members, allowing members to specifytheir relationships with other members. For example, thesemember-defined relationships allow members to generate relationshipswith other members that parallel the members' real-life relationships,such as friends, co-workers, partners, and so forth. Members may selectfrom predefined types of relationships, or define their own relationshiptypes as needed.

FIG. 2 is an example block diagram of a social networking website 100.Social networking website 100 includes a web server 250, an actionlogger 260, an action log 160, a newsfeed generator 270, an ad server280, a database of ad requests 175, a member profile store 205, a groupstore 210, an event store 215, an application data store 220, atransaction store 245, and a content store 230. In other embodiments,social networking website 100 may include additional, fewer, ordifferent modules for various applications.

Web server 250 links social networking website 100 via network 220 toone or more client devices 210, as well as to one or more third partywebsites 140. Web server 250 may include a mail server or othermessaging functionality for receiving and routing messages betweensocial networking website 100 and client devices 210 or third partywebsites 140. The messages can be instant messages, queued messages(e.g., email), text and SMS messages, or any other suitable messagingtechnique.

Action logger 260 is capable of receiving communications from the webserver 250 about member actions on and/or off social networking website100. Newsfeed generator 270 generates communications for each memberabout information that may be relevant to the member. Thesecommunications may take the form of stories, each story is aninformation message comprising one or a few lines of information aboutan action in the action log that is relevant to the particular member.The stories are presented to a member via one or more pages of thesocial networking website 100, for example in each member's home page ornewsfeed page.

Ad server 280 performs an ad selection algorithm 170. Ad server 280 iscommunicatively coupled to the database of ad requests 175 and to actionlog 160 for this purpose.

FIG. 3 shows the interaction between SPONSORED STORY application 301 andan activity stream 302. In particular embodiments, SPONSORED STORYapplication 301 may be software residing within the sponsored storysystem 304, or part of the stream sponsored story+database 305. Inparticular embodiments, SPONSORED STORY application 301 may be softwareexecuted by any number of servers in the social networking system,either in conjunction or in isolation. In particular embodiments,SPONSORED STORY application 301 may reside on its own dedicatedhardware. Activity stream 302 comprises the aggregate stream of statusupdates and news stories for all users of a social network. Activitystream 302 under normal operation passes to news feed engine 303, whichparses the individual stories in activity stream 302 and determineswhich users' (generally the friends of the user who generated the story)pages to display each story on. In particular embodiments, both activitystream 302 and newsfeed engine 303 are applications residing in server307. In particular embodiments, activity stream 302 or newsfeed engine303 are applications distributed across one or more computing servers.This disclosure contemplates any suitable implementation of activitystream 302 and newsfeed engine 303.

A sponsor uses Sponsor GUI 306 to specify the type of stories it wantspromoted to the sponsored story section of users' pages. Examples ofSponsor GUI 306 are depicted in FIGS. 6A and 6B. The Sponsor GUI 306provides a method for the sponsor to create story filters to locatespecific types of news feed stories for promoting to the sponsored storyspace of a user's home page. Once the sponsor sets up its preferencesfor the types of stories it wishes to promote to the sponsored storyportion, the sponsor specifications are stored into stream sponsoredstory specification database 305.

FIG. 4 depicts the overall flow of the SPONSORED STORY system andmethod. In step 401, SPONSORED STORY application 301 constantly monitorsactivity stream 302, searching for matches to any of the sponsored storyspecifications in stream sponsored story specification database 305. Instep 402, the SPONSORED STORY system compares each story in the activitystream 302 to all stream sponsored story specifications in streamsponsored story specification database. If there is a match, theprocedure continues to step 403, if not, it loops back to 401.

In step 403, upon finding a match, SPONSORED STORY application 301 pullsthe matching entry out of activity stream 302, and formats the entryinto a predetermined visual specification. In particular embodiments,the visual specification is dictated by the social networking system tomimic a regular news feed story. FIGURES In other embodiments, specialidentifiers may be added by the social networking system to indicatethat the story is a sponsored story. In other embodiments, the visualspecifications are entered by the sponsor through the Sponsor GUI 306 atthe time of stream story specification. In such an embodiment, thevisual specification is stored along with the story specification in thestream sponsored story specification database 305. In particularembodiments, the sponsor is given limited discretion as to the visualspecifications for the promoted stream story, subject to predeterminedconstraints imposed by the social networking system.

In step 404, after the story is formatted pursuant to the visualspecification or by the social networking system to visually comportwith a news feed story, the sponsored story is passed to sponsored storysystem 304.

In step 405, after a social story is formatted into a sponsored story,it is priced and directed toward users in a similar manner as a socialad. In particular embodiments, the user may also add a weight to thestory to alter its direction toward users. For example, certain storiesmay decay quickly, such as check-ins, and are not displayed to otherusers beyond a predetermined threshold time period from the storygeneration. In other embodiments, user-specified temporal factors, suchas deadlines, may increase the weight of the sponsored story so that itis promoted over other sponsored stories lacking time sensitivity.

In particular embodiments, ad targeting is based upon an affinity scorecalculated by social networking website 100. A member may haveaffinities for other members, types of actions, types of objects, andcontent. Accordingly, a calculated affinity score may be based on aweighted function that takes into account the set of affinities for theparticular member for each type of data field that is in a candidatestory. The website may obtain a member's affinities based on themember's express interests (whether provided directly or indirectly, forexample, through communications with other members) and/or impliedlybased on the member's actions (e.g., a member's checking of anothermember's page indicates an interest in that other member, or clicking onparticular types of links may indicate an interest in similar links). Anaffinity, as measured for example by an affinity score, need not be anactual subjective interest or lack of interest that a member has forsomething (i.e., the member likes punk rock music, and dislikesvegetarian restaurants), but rather it may merely be a correlationbetween something in the candidate story and some information stored inconnection with that member, whether is an action taken by the member, acommunication involving the member, a characteristic, feature orexpressed interest in the member's profile.

FIG. 5 illustrates an event diagram for a sponsored story model inaccordance with one embodiment of the invention. In this sponsored storymodel, a number of sponsors 502 bid for the placement of sponsoredstories on a social networking website 100. A social networking websiteoperator 501 receives these bids, for example, through a web interfaceaccessible to sponsors 502. Accompanying each bid is a description ofthe sponsored story that sponsor 502 would like to publish to fordisplay to a particular set of members of the social network. Thisdisclosure contemplates a variety of methods of publishing the sponsoredstory. In particular embodiments, the sponsored story is published on asocial network member's home page on the social network. In particularembodiments, the sponsored story may be displayed on a predeterminedarea of a mobile device. In particular embodiments, the sponsored storymay be published through notifications in the social network. Inparticular embodiments, the sponsored story may be published throughe-mail, instant messaging, or other messaging applications. Inparticular embodiments, the sponsored story may be displayed on athird-party website integrated with the social network. The webinterface may thus allow sponsor 502 to specify all of the relevantinformation for a sponsored story request, including the bid amount forthe sponsored story.

The bid amount specified in the sponsored story request may indicate anamount of money that sponsor 502 will pay for each time a memberpresented with the sponsored story clicks on it. In one embodiment, thesponsor may be a non-profit or charity where the bid amount is given atlittle or no cost. Alternatively, the bid amount may specify an amountthat sponsor 502 will pay the website operator 501 each time thesponsored story is displayed to a member or a certain number of membersor each time the sponsored story is clicked on by a member or a certainnumber of members. In another embodiment, the sponsor may pay a setamount per month or period of time and the social networking websitewill determine the bid amount and/or how and when to display thesponsored stories. In addition, the sponsored story request may allowsponsor 502 to specify targeting criteria. This targeting criteria maybe a filter to apply to fields of a member's member profile or otherobject, and/or it may include free form text such as wall posts,comments, and messages. In one embodiment, in order to optimize thetargeting and selection of sponsored stories for users of a socialnetwork, social information gathered on and off the social network abouta user is leveraged to infer interests about users of the socialnetwork. A social network may maintain a social graph that identifiesthe mapping of connections among the users, including entities such asbusinesses, applications, groups, etc, of a social network, and thesocial network may also maintain profiles that contain full or partialinformation about each of the users in the social network. Targeting maybe based one or more factors such as member demographics (age, gender,location, birthdate, age, education level, employers, employment type,work history and experience, hobbies, and or preferences. These factorsmay draw from explicit member statements such as listing it on theirprofile, connections to other members or entities, or throughuser-entered text on and off the social networking site. In anotherembodiment, these factors may be implicitly or inferred by the socialnetwork.

One or more sponsored stories available to the social network maycontain targeting criteria for determining whether the sponsored storyshould be targeted to a particular user. While the social network mayhave sufficient information about some of its users to apply thetargeting criteria, the social network may not have sufficientinformation about other users to apply the targeting criteria. Ratherthan missing out on the opportunity to target sponsored stories to thislatter group of users, embodiments use the information for other usersto whom a particular user is connected when the social network does nothave sufficient information to apply the targeting criteria to the user.This may be thought of as “inferential” targeting because a user'slikely interest in a particular ad is inferred based on whether thatuser's connections (e.g., friends in the social network) are goodcandidates for the sponsored story based on its targeting criteria.

FIG. 6A depicts an example of sponsor GUI 601. Sponsor GUI includes adrop down window 610 that allows a user of the GUI 601 to select anypreviously saved stream sponsored story specification 602 a-602 e. Usercontrols 603, 604, and 605 give the user the option to save,deactivate/activate, or delete an existing stream sponsored storyspecification. User control 606 provides the user with the option tocreate a new stream sponsored story specification. The process ofcreating a new stream sponsored story specification is described indetail below.

Upon selecting user control 606, the user is presented with another setof drop down commands 607. Drop down menu 607 lists all the entitieswith which a user is associated in the social network. Examples of suchan entity include but are not limited to, pages that the user hascreated to interact with fans of the page, such as for a musician or TVshow, applications associated with the user, such as social networkinggames, deals or coupons associated with the user, and physical locationsassociated with the user that members of the social network may “checkin” to, in order to indicate that they or others were physically at thelocation.

After the user has selected the entity associated with the user to beincluded in the stream sponsored story specification, the user selects,using drop down menu 608, the types of interactions members of thesocial network have with the entity on and off the social network thatthe user would like to promote to the sponsored story space. Userinteractions include, but are not limited to tagging, sharing, “liking”,commenting on media or mentioning a user in a status update or comment,fringing someone, RSVPing or inviting a user to an event or game, andthe like. Other user interactions include but are not limited to“check-ins” and other location-based social interactions, sharing a linkfrom a third-party website, “liking” a post or page from a third-partysite, buying, redeeming, or subscribing to deals and other promotions,and interacting with an application on or off the social network. Anytime a user makes a connection or performs a social action on the socialnetwork, a new story is generated in activity stream 302 that mayultimately be promoted.

Depending on the type of entity selected in drop down menu 607, theinteractions available in menu 608 available to the user vary. Forexample, if the user selects a page, such as for a band or musician,from menu 607, the interactions in 608 may include: when a member“likes” the page, when a member posts a link on page, when the pageowner (generally, but not necessarily, the user of the sponsor GUIitself) posts a link on the page, or when a member shares a link to anexternal website that is related to the page. As another example, if theuser of the sponsor GUI selects a place, such as a store location, fromdrop down menu 607, the GUI may show, in drop down menu 608: when amember of the social network “checks in” to the place, when a member ofthe social network gives a review of the place greater than apredetermined threshold, or when a member of the social network “likes”the place.

As described above, actions by users performed off of a socialnetworking website (e.g., actions on third party websites or in the realworld) may be used to generate sponsored stories on the socialnetworking website. Conversely, in various embodiments of the invention,a social networking website can collect its users' actions and thenpresent sponsored stories and/or other information concerning actionstaken by its users on third party websites. In this way, the techniquesfor promoting actions using this information can be extended beyond asocial networking website itself.

Alternative embodiments are contemplated by the disclosure that may becontemplated by ones of ordinary skill in the art. In particularembodiments, the user may specify geographic or temporal criteria usedby sponsored story system 304 in determining which users to display thesponsored story to. For example, a user may desire to promote apromotion that expires in three days, and may specify to only promotestories for the next three days. In other embodiments, the user mayspecify to promote stories only for users located with a specificgeographic location. In particular embodiments, user may specify athreshold of people taking the same action. For example, a user may wantto display friend check-ins to members of the social network only if twoor more friends of the user check-in to a given location substantiallysimultaneously. In such an embodiment, SPONSORED STORY application 301may search for multiple check-ins to a given location by friends of aspecific users within a predetermined time period. If such stories arefound, SPONSORED STORY application 301 may aggregate the plurality ofstories into a single sponsored story. After the user is satisfied withthe specifications of the stream sponsored story that has just beencreated, the user may utilize controls 603 and 604 to save and activatethe sponsored story, respectively.

FIG. 6B depicts a simplified sponsor GUI 306. The sponsor may usecontrols 610 and 620 to select where to display the sponsored story. Forexample, in 620, the user may select to display the sponsored story ontargeted members' walls. Using controls 640, the sponsor may select whatkind of story SPONSORED STORY App 301 should search for in activitystream 302. In this example, the sponsor may select from a page poststory, page “like” story, or a place check-in story. Finally, thesponsor GUI 306 may provide a preview 650 of the sponsored story.

In FIG. 7, a user's newsfeed 701, recommendation space 702, sponsoredstory space 703, notifications 704, and questions 707 are depicted. Inparticular embodiments, elements 701-705 are displayed on a socialnetworking user's home screen. In particular embodiments, element 701 isdisplayed on a user's home screen, and one or more of elements 702-705are displayed at all times. This disclosure contemplates any arrangementof elements 701-705 and any degree of persistence. In particularembodiments, elements 702-705 are displayed on other user's pages. Inparticular embodiments, these other users may be the user's friend. Inother embodiments, these other users may be otherwise associated withthe user. In particular embodiments, the display of elements to otherusers 702-705 is determined by sponsored story system 304. The sponsoredstory system 304 accesses a database of user privacy preferences whendetermining which users to display the sponsored story to. For example,if a user has previously specified that he or she does not wish to seesponsored stories from a particular company, the sponsored story systemwill not display stories promoted by that particular company. Inparticular embodiments, sponsored story system 304 accesses thevisibility and privacy settings of the user that generated the newsfeedstory to be promoted, and uses the settings in determining which usersto display the promoted story to. For example, a user may have multiplefriend lists, and members belonging to one or more different lists maybe prevented from viewing specific stories, types of stories, or theuser's newsfeed altogether. sponsored story system 304 respects thesesettings so that only friends of the user who are granted access to viewthe newsfeed story to be promoted are displayed the promoted streamsponsored story. This disclosure contemplates various methods ofdetermining which users to display element 703 to as envisioned by thoseof ordinary skill in the art. Newsfeed 701 includes newsfeed stories 701a-701 d. These stories are generated specifically for a user based uponthe activities the user's friends or other entities the user isassociated with. Newsfeed story 701 b is an example of a newsfeed storythat has been selected for promoting to sponsor space 703. When theSPONSORED STORY application 301 detects a match in the activity stream302 to an sponsor's stream sponsored story specification from the streamsponsored story specification database 303, the sponsored story 703 isformatted to resemble a news feed story and sent to the sponsored storysystem 304. In this particular example, the stream story relates to astory when four friends of a user “liked” the entity “Toys ‘R’ Us.” Theformatted sponsored story 703 is promoted to the user or another set ofusers by the sponsored story system 304.

FIGS. 7A-E illustrate examples of promoted sponsor stories 703. EachSponsored Story 703 includes a social context 38. In particularembodiments, social context 38 comprises the user who performed thesocial action, a descriptor of the action, and a comment entered by theuser who performed the social action. Sponsored stories 703 may alsoinclude an attribution 39, corresponding to the entity selected by thesponsor in sponsor GUI 306. In particular embodiments, the attributionis the node with which the user interacted or connected with to generatethe stream story. For example, in FIG. 7B, the user interacted with theentity “Starbucks” by checking-in to a Starbucks location. In FIG. 7C,user interacted with the entity or node “CNN Heroes” by “liking” theentity. Sponsored stories 703 may also include a bling indicator 43,which provides a visual indication as to how many members of the socialnetworking site have commented or liked the sponsored story. Emu likeinterface 6 allows users to quickly interact with the node/entity by“liking” it. In particular embodiments, sponsored story 703 may includean action link 42, which allows a user, when selecting the link, toquickly perform a predetermined action, such as, in FIG. 7A, donating toa particular cause. FIG. 7D depicts an example where an share link 24 toshare a story published by an entity or node, in this case “CNN Heroes,”is provided. Upon clicking share link 24, the user is taken to aninterface depicted in FIG. 7E, which allows the user to publish thesponsored story back to his or her own news feed. Action link 42 in FIG.7E posts the sponsored story to the user's own wall along with anycomments the user optionally chooses to append to the story. Theembodiments depicted in FIGS. 7A-7E are merely examples and are in noway limiting; this disclosure contemplates any number of formatting andactions for sponsored stories.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example computer system 800. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 800 perform one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein. In particularembodiments, one or more computer systems 800 provide functionalitydescribed or illustrated herein. In particular embodiments, softwarerunning on one or more computer systems 800 performs one or more stepsof one or more methods described or illustrated herein or providesfunctionality described or illustrated herein. Particular embodimentsinclude one or more portions of one or more computer systems 800.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable number of computer systems800. This disclosure contemplates computer system 800 taking anysuitable physical form. As example and not by way of limitation,computer system 800 may be an embedded computer system, a system-on-chip(SOC), a single-board computer system (SBC) (such as, for example, acomputer-on-module (COM) or system-on-module (SOM)), a desktop computersystem, a laptop or notebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, amainframe, a mesh of computer systems, a mobile telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a server, a tablet computer system, or acombination of two or more of these. Where appropriate, computer system800 may include one or more computer systems 800; be unitary ordistributed; span multiple locations; span multiple machines; spanmultiple datacenters; or reside in a cloud, which may include one ormore cloud components in one or more networks. Where appropriate, one ormore computer systems 800 may perform without substantial spatial ortemporal limitation one or more steps of one or more methods describedor illustrated herein. As an example and not by way of limitation, oneor more computer systems 800 may perform in real time or in batch modeone or more steps of one or more methods described or illustratedherein. One or more computer systems 800 may perform at different timesor at different locations one or more steps of one or more methodsdescribed or illustrated herein, where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, computer system 800 includes a processor 802,memory 804, storage 806, an input/output (I/O) interface 808, acommunication interface 810, and a bus 812. Although this disclosuredescribes and illustrates a particular computer system having aparticular number of particular components in a particular arrangement,this disclosure contemplates any suitable computer system having anysuitable number of any suitable components in any suitable arrangement.

In particular embodiments, processor 802 includes hardware for executinginstructions, such as those making up a computer program. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, to execute instructions, processor 802 mayretrieve (or fetch) the instructions from an internal register, aninternal cache, memory 804, or storage 806; decode and execute them; andthen write one or more results to an internal register, an internalcache, memory 804, or storage 806. In particular embodiments, processor802 may include one or more internal caches for data, instructions, oraddresses. This disclosure contemplates processor 802 including anysuitable number of any suitable internal caches, where appropriate. Asan example and not by way of limitation, processor 802 may include oneor more instruction caches, one or more data caches, and one or moretranslation lookaside buffers (TLBs). Instructions in the instructioncaches may be copies of instructions in memory 804 or storage 806, andthe instruction caches may speed up retrieval of those instructions byprocessor 802. Data in the data caches may be copies of data in memory804 or storage 806 for instructions executing at processor 802 tooperate on; the results of previous instructions executed at processor802 for access by subsequent instructions executing at processor 802 orfor writing to memory 804 or storage 806; or other suitable data. Thedata caches may speed up read or write operations by processor 802. TheTLBs may speed up virtual-address translation for processor 802. Inparticular embodiments, processor 802 may include one or more internalregisters for data, instructions, or addresses. This disclosurecontemplates processor 802 including any suitable number of any suitableinternal registers, where appropriate. Where appropriate, processor 802may include one or more arithmetic logic units (ALUs); be a multi-coreprocessor; or include one or more processors 802. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular processor, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable processor.

In particular embodiments, memory 804 includes main memory for storinginstructions for processor 802 to execute or data for processor 802 tooperate on. As an example and not by way of limitation, computer system800 may load instructions from storage 806 or another source (such as,for example, another computer system 800) to memory 804. Processor 802may then load the instructions from memory 804 to an internal registeror internal cache. To execute the instructions, processor 802 mayretrieve the instructions from the internal register or internal cacheand decode them. During or after execution of the instructions,processor 802 may write one or more results (which may be intermediateor final results) to the internal register or internal cache. Processor802 may then write one or more of those results to memory 804. Inparticular embodiments, processor 802 executes only instructions in oneor more internal registers or internal caches or in memory 804 (asopposed to storage 806 or elsewhere) and operates only on data in one ormore internal registers or internal caches or in memory 804 (as opposedto storage 806 or elsewhere). One or more memory buses (which may eachinclude an address bus and a data bus) may couple processor 802 tomemory 804. Bus 812 may include one or more memory buses, as describedbelow. In particular embodiments, one or more memory management units(MMUs) reside between processor 802 and memory 804 and facilitateaccesses to memory 804 requested by processor 802. In particularembodiments, memory 804 includes random access memory (RAM). This RAMmay be volatile memory, where appropriate Where appropriate, this RAMmay be dynamic RAM (DRAM) or static RAM (SRAM). Moreover, whereappropriate, this RAM may be single-ported or multi-ported RAM. Thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable RAM. Memory 804 may include one ormore memories 804, where appropriate. Although this disclosure describesand illustrates particular memory, this disclosure contemplates anysuitable memory.

In particular embodiments, storage 806 includes mass storage for data orinstructions. As an example and not by way of limitation, storage 806may include an HDD, a floppy disk drive, flash memory, an optical disc,a magneto-optical disc, magnetic tape, or a Universal Serial Bus (USB)drive or a combination of two or more of these. Storage 806 may includeremovable or non-removable (or fixed) media, where appropriate. Storage806 may be internal or external to computer system 800, whereappropriate. In particular embodiments, storage 806 is non-volatile,solid-state memory. In particular embodiments, storage 806 includesread-only memory (ROM). Where appropriate, this ROM may bemask-programmed ROM, programmable ROM (PROM), erasable PROM (EPROM),electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), electrically alterable ROM (EAROM),or flash memory or a combination of two or more of these. Thisdisclosure contemplates mass storage 806 taking any suitable physicalform. Storage 806 may include one or more storage control unitsfacilitating communication between processor 802 and storage 806, whereappropriate. Where appropriate, storage 806 may include one or morestorages 806. Although this disclosure describes and illustratesparticular storage, this disclosure contemplates any suitable storage.

In particular embodiments, I/O interface 808 includes hardware,software, or both providing one or more interfaces for communicationbetween computer system 800 and one or more I/O devices. Computer system800 may include one or more of these I/O devices, where appropriate. Oneor more of these I/O devices may enable communication between a personand computer system 800. As an example and not by way of limitation, anI/O device may include a keyboard, keypad, microphone, monitor, mouse,printer, scanner, speaker, still camera, stylus, tablet, touchscreen,trackball, video camera, another suitable I/O device or a combination oftwo or more of these. An I/O device may include one or more sensors.This disclosure contemplates any suitable I/O devices and any suitableI/O interfaces 808 for them. Where appropriate, I/O interface 808 mayinclude one or more device or software drivers enabling processor 802 todrive one or more of these I/O devices. I/O interface 808 may includeone or more I/O interfaces 808, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular I/O interface, thisdisclosure contemplates any suitable I/O interface.

In particular embodiments, communication interface 810 includeshardware, software, or both providing one or more interfaces forcommunication (such as, for example, packet-based communication) betweencomputer system 800 and one or more other computer systems 800 or one ormore networks. As an example and not by way of limitation, communicationinterface 810 may include a network interface controller (NIC) ornetwork adapter for communicating with an Ethernet or other wire-basednetwork or a wireless NIC (WNIC) or wireless adapter for communicatingwith a wireless network, such as a WI-FI network. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network and any suitable communicationinterface 810 for it. As an example and not by way of limitation,computer system 800 may communicate with an ad hoc network, a personalarea network (PAN), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network(WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or one or more portions of theInternet or a combination of two or more of these. One or more portionsof one or more of these networks may be wired or wireless. As anexample, computer system 800 may communicate with a wireless PAN (WPAN)(such as, for example, a BLUETOOTH WPAN), a WI-FI network, a WI-MAXnetwork, a cellular telephone network (such as, for example, a GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM) network), or other suitablewireless network or a combination of two or more of these. Computersystem 800 may include any suitable communication interface 810 for anyof these networks, where appropriate. Communication interface 810 mayinclude one or more communication interfaces 810, where appropriate.Although this disclosure describes and illustrates a particularcommunication interface, this disclosure contemplates any suitablecommunication interface.

In particular embodiments, bus 812 includes hardware, software, or bothcoupling components of computer system 800 to each other. As an exampleand not by way of limitation, bus 812 may include an AcceleratedGraphics Port (AGP) or other graphics bus, an Enhanced Industry StandardArchitecture (EISA) bus, a front-side bus (FSB), a HYPERTRANSPORT (HT)interconnect, an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, an INFINIBANDinterconnect, a low-pin-count (LPC) bus, a memory bus, a Micro ChannelArchitecture (MCA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, aPCI-Express (PCI-X) bus, a serial advanced technology attachment (SATA)bus, a Video Electronics Standards Association local (VLB) bus, oranother suitable bus or a combination of two or more of these. Bus 812may include one or more buses 812, where appropriate. Although thisdisclosure describes and illustrates a particular bus, this disclosurecontemplates any suitable bus or interconnect.

Herein, reference to a computer-readable storage medium encompasses oneor more non-transitory, tangible, computer-readable storage mediapossessing structure. As an example and not by way of limitation, acomputer-readable storage medium may include a semiconductor-based orother integrated circuit (IC) (such, as for example, afield-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application-specific IC(ASIC)), a hard disk, an HDD, a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an opticaldisc, an optical disc drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disc, amagneto-optical drive, a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive (FDD),magnetic tape, a holographic storage medium, a solid-state drive (SSD),a RAM-drive, a SECURE DIGITAL card, a SECURE DIGITAL drive, or anothersuitable computer-readable storage medium or a combination of two ormore of these, where appropriate. Herein, reference to acomputer-readable storage medium excludes any medium that is noteligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. §101. Herein, referenceto a computer-readable storage medium excludes transitory forms ofsignal transmission (such as a propagating electrical or electromagneticsignal per se) to the extent that they are not eligible for patentprotection under 35 U.S.C. §101. A computer-readable non-transitorystorage medium may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination ofvolatile and non-volatile, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates one or more computer-readable storage mediaimplementing any suitable storage. In particular embodiments, acomputer-readable storage medium implements one or more portions ofprocessor 802 (such as, for example, one or more internal registers orcaches), one or more portions of memory 804, one or more portions ofstorage 806, or a combination of these, where appropriate. In particularembodiments, a computer-readable storage medium implements RAM or ROM.In particular embodiments, a computer-readable storage medium implementsvolatile or persistent memory. In particular embodiments, one or morecomputer-readable storage media embody software. Herein, reference tosoftware may encompass one or more applications, bytecode, one or morecomputer programs, one or more executables, one or more instructions,logic, machine code, one or more scripts, or source code, and viceversa, where appropriate. In particular embodiments, software includesone or more application programming interfaces (APIs). This disclosurecontemplates any suitable software written or otherwise expressed in anysuitable programming language or combination of programming languages.In particular embodiments, software is expressed as source code orobject code. In particular embodiments, software is expressed in ahigher-level programming language, such as, for example, C, Perl, or asuitable extension thereof. In particular embodiments, software isexpressed in a lower-level programming language, such as assemblylanguage (or machine code). In particular embodiments, software isexpressed in JAVA. In particular embodiments, software is expressed inHyper Text Markup Language (HTML), Extensible Markup Language (XML), orother suitable markup language.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example network environment 900. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network environment 900. As an example and notby way of limitation, although this disclosure describes and illustratesa network environment 900 that implements a client-server model, thisdisclosure contemplates one or more portions of a network environment900 being peer-to-peer, where appropriate. Particular embodiments mayoperate in whole or in part in one or more network environments 900. Inparticular embodiments, one or more elements of network environment 900provide functionality described or illustrated herein. Particularembodiments include one or more portions of network environment 900.Network environment 900 includes a network 99 coupling one or moreservers 920 and one or more clients 930 to each other. This disclosurecontemplates any suitable network 99. As an example and not by way oflimitation, one or more portions of network 99 may include an ad hocnetwork, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), alocal area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network(WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), aportion of the Internet, a portion of the Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN), a cellular telephone network, or a combination of two ormore of these. Network 99 may include one or more networks 99.

Links 950 couple servers 920 and clients 930 to network 99 or to eachother. This disclosure contemplates any suitable links 950. As anexample and not by way of limitation, one or more links 950 each includeone or more wireline (such as, for example, Digital Subscriber Line(DSL) or Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS)),wireless (such as, for example, Wi-Fi or Worldwide Interoperability forMicrowave Access (WiMAX)) or optical (such as, for example, SynchronousOptical Network (SONET) or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH)) links950. In particular embodiments, one or more links 950 each includes anintranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a MAN, acommunications network, a satellite network, a portion of the Internet,or another link 950 or a combination of two or more such links 950.Links 950 need not necessarily be the same throughout networkenvironment 900. One or more first links 950 may differ in one or morerespects from one or more second links 950.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable servers 920. As an example andnot by way of limitation, one or more servers 920 may each include oneor more advertising servers, applications servers, catalog servers,communications servers, database servers, exchange servers, fax servers,file servers, game servers, home servers, mail servers, message servers,news servers, name or DNS servers, print servers, proxy servers, soundservers, standalone servers, web servers, or web-feed servers. Inparticular embodiments, a server 920 includes hardware, software, orboth for providing the functionality of server 920. As an example andnot by way of limitation, a server 920 that operates as a web server maybe capable of hosting websites containing web pages or elements of webpages and include appropriate hardware, software, or both for doing so.In particular embodiments, a web server may host HTML or other suitablefiles or dynamically create or constitute files for web pages onrequest. In response to a Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or otherrequest from a client 930, the web server may communicate one or moresuch files to client 930. As another example, a server 920 that operatesas a mail server may be capable of providing e-mail services to one ormore clients 930. As another example, a server 920 that operates as adatabase server may be capable of providing an interface for interactingwith one or more data stores (such as, for example, data stores 990described below). Where appropriate, a server 920 may include one ormore servers 920; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations;span multiple machines; span multiple datacenters; or reside in a cloud,which may include one or more cloud components in one or more networks.

In particular embodiments, one or more links 950 may couple a server 920to one or more data stores 940. A data store 940 may store any suitableinformation, and the contents of a data store 940 may be organized inany suitable manner. As an example and not by way or limitation, thecontents of a data store 940 may be stored as a dimensional, flat,hierarchical, network, object-oriented, relational, XML, or othersuitable database or a combination or two or more of these. A data store940 (or a server 920 coupled to it) may include a database-managementsystem or other hardware or software for managing the contents of datastore 940. The database-management system may perform read and writeoperations, delete or erase data, perform data deduplication, query orsearch the contents of data store 940, or provide other access to datastore 940.

In particular embodiments, one or more servers 920 may each include oneor more search engines 922. A search engine 922 may include hardware,software, or both for providing the functionality of search engine 922.As an example and not by way of limitation, a search engine 922 mayimplement one or more search algorithms to identify network resources inresponse to search queries received at search engine 922, one or moreranking algorithms to rank identified network resources, or one or moresummarization algorithms to summarize identified network resources. Inparticular embodiments, a ranking algorithm implemented by a searchengine 922 may use a machine-learned ranking formula, which the rankingalgorithm may obtain automatically from a set of training dataconstructed from pairs of search queries and selected Uniform ResourceLocators (URLs), where appropriate.

In particular embodiments, one or more servers 920 may each include oneor more data monitors/collectors 924. A data monitor/collection 924 mayinclude hardware, software, or both for providing the functionality ofdata collector/collector 924. As an example and not by way oflimitation, a data monitor/collector 924 at a server 920 may monitor andcollect network-traffic data at server 920 and store the network-trafficdata in one or more data stores 940. In particular embodiments, server920 or another device may extract pairs of search queries and selectedURLs from the network-traffic data, where appropriate.

This disclosure contemplates any suitable clients 930. A client 930 mayenable a user at client 930 to access or otherwise communicate withnetwork 99, servers 920, or other clients 930. As an example and not byway of limitation, a client 930 may have a web browser, such asMICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER or MOZILLA FIREFOX, and may have one or moreadd-ons, plug-ins, or other extensions, such as GOOGLE TOOLBAR or YAHOOTOOLBAR. A client 930 may be an electronic device including hardware,software, or both for providing the functionality of client 930. As anexample and not by way of limitation, a client 930 may, whereappropriate, be an embedded computer system, an SOC, an SBC (such as,for example, a COM or SOM), a desktop computer system, a laptop ornotebook computer system, an interactive kiosk, a mainframe, a mesh ofcomputer systems, a mobile telephone, a PDA, a netbook computer system,a server, a tablet computer system, or a combination of two or more ofthese. Where appropriate, a client 930 may include one or more clients930; be unitary or distributed; span multiple locations; span multiplemachines; span multiple datacenters; or reside in a cloud, which mayinclude one or more cloud components in one or more networks.

Herein, “or” is inclusive and not exclusive, unless expressly indicatedotherwise or indicated otherwise by context. Therefore, herein, “A or B”means “A, B, or both,” unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicatedotherwise by context. Moreover, “and” is both joint and several, unlessexpressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.Therefore, herein, “A and B” means “A and B, jointly or severally,”unless expressly indicated otherwise or indicated otherwise by context.

This disclosure encompasses all changes, substitutions, variations,alterations, and modifications to the example embodiments herein that aperson having ordinary skill in the art would comprehend. Similarly,where appropriate, the appended claims encompass all changes,substitutions, variations, alterations, and modifications to the exampleembodiments herein that a person having ordinary skill in the art wouldcomprehend. Moreover, reference in the appended claims to an apparatusor system or a component of an apparatus or system being adapted to,arranged to, capable of, configured to, enabled to, operable to, oroperative to perform a particular function encompasses that apparatus,system, component, whether or not it or that particular function isactivated, turned on, or unlocked, as long as that apparatus, system, orcomponent is so adapted, arranged, capable, configured, enabled,operable, or operative.

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed.Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure. For example, although the foregoing embodiments have beendescribed in the context of a social network system, it will apparent toone of ordinary skill in the art that the invention may be used with anyelectronic social network service and, even if it is not providedthrough a website. Any computer-based system that provides socialnetworking functionality can be used in accordance with the presentinvention even if it relies, for example, on e-mail, instant messagingor other form of peer-to-peer communications, and any other techniquefor communicating between users. The invention is thus not limited toany particular type of communication system, network, protocol, formator application.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of theinvention in terms of algorithms and symbolic representations ofoperations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the invention may also relate to an apparatus forperforming the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a tangible computer readable storage medium or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and coupled to acomputer system bus. Furthermore, any computing systems referred to inthe specification may include a single processor or may be architecturesemploying multiple processor designs for increased computing capability.

While the foregoing processes and mechanisms can be implemented by awide variety of physical systems and in a wide variety of network andcomputing environments, the server or computing systems described belowprovide example computing system architectures for didactic, rather thanlimiting, purposes.

The present invention has been explained with reference to specificembodiments. For example, while embodiments of the present inventionhave been described as operating in connection with a social networksystem, the present invention can be used in connection with anycommunications facility that allows for communication of messagesbetween users, such as an email hosting site. Other embodiments will beevident to those of ordinary skill in the art. It is therefore notintended that the present invention be limited, except as indicated bythe appended claims.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be limited notby this detailed description, but rather by any claims that issue on anapplication based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of the embodimentsof the invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, ofthe scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing systems: receivingsponsor specifications designating a set of story characteristics;monitoring an organic activity stream for entries matching the storycharacteristics; and upon finding a match, exporting the entry to asponsored story system.
 2. The method of claim 1, the storycharacteristics comprising: an application ID; wherein a match is foundany time an entry in the activity stream is published via an applicationwith the same application ID.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising displaying the converted entry to all users connected to theuser generating the entry via the application.
 4. The method of claim 1,the story characteristics comprising: an entity identifier, wherein amatch is found any time an entry in the activity stream is generated bya user interacting with an entity corresponding to the entityidentifier.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying theentry to all users connected to the user interacting with the entity. 6.The method of 4, further comprising displaying the entry to all usersconnected to the entity.
 7. The method of claim 4, interacting with theentity comprising liking the entity.
 8. The method of claim 4,interacting with the entity comprising posting a link to the page of theentity.
 9. The method of claim 4, interacting with the entity comprisingchecking-in to a location associated with the entity.
 10. The method ofclaim 4, interacting with the entity comprising posting a review of theentity above a predetermined threshold value.
 11. The method of claim 1,the story characteristics comprising: an entity identifier and aspecific tag requesting delivery to the sponsored story system.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the sponsored story system displays the entryon a predetermined area of web page.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinthe sponsor specifications includes a visualization characteristic, andthe sponsored story system converts the entry in accordance with thevisualization characteristic prior to display.
 14. The method of claim1, wherein the activity stream is a news feed of the collective actionsof all the users of a social network while on the social network
 15. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the activity stream is a news feed of thecollective actions of all the users of a social network whileinteracting with networked entities that are not a part of the socialnetwork.
 16. The method of claim 4, further comprising displaying theentry to all users interacting with the entity
 17. The method of claim16, wherein interacting with the entity comprises liking the entity. 18.The method of claim 16, wherein interacting with the entity compriseschecking in to a location associated with the entity.
 19. The method ofclaim 4, further comprising: calculating a score for each user of thesocial network, the score comprising a numeric value representing eachuser's affinity for the entity based on each user's profile; anddisplaying the entry to all users whose score exceeds a predeterminedthreshold value.
 20. The method of claim 4, further comprising:calculating a score for each user connected to the user interacting withthe entity, the score comprising a numeric value representing the user'saffinity for the entity based on the user's profile; and displaying theentry to all users whose score exceeds a predetermined threshold value.